response to estherau:

It sounds a reasonable approach to me; the only downside I can see is that you will probably have a fair number of redundant Poser Pro program files within the merged Poser 8 Runtime folder. This should not affect Poser 8 operation, though.

I think I'll try this myself when I install this evening.

But I'm definitely going to back up my Poser Pro Runtime before doing the Ditto merge! I don't mind having to re-install Poser 8, but there's no way I want to have to re-install Poser Pro, again.

Afterthought: an alternative approach might be to do what you suggest just on the Python folder and all its contents, not the whole Runtime.

I had a login with all that information. I did find a form to email my problem. I wanted to start from scratch with all my vidal info. As it stands now I can't log in, or start a new login profile.

If they start from scratch, that should delete what ever problems they are having with my login Info. I've been hooked up with Poser since Poser 4, which I origially bought at a retail store in late 1987 or early in 1988, I'm not sure which date. This is the first time I had a problem buying  something. A company can go out of buisness without a system to buy their products.

Quote - If you are a Poser Pro customer, and you buy a copy of Poser 8, you’ll own two licenses and two unique serial numbers; one for Poser Pro and one for Poser 8. Any user with those two valid serial numbers will be extended an invitation to join our Poser Pro 2010 beta program as soon as it’s publicly available. Plus, the price you paid for Poser 8 will be applied to your upgrade to final version of Poser Pro 2010 once it is released.

Where is this second license? When I used my Poser Pro serial number to purchase Poser 8 from CP all I recieved was a new serial number for Poser 8. Nothing about a serial number for Poser Pro 2010 Beta anywhere in the confirmation email can be found.

Quote - I had a login with all that information. I did find a form to email my problem. I wanted to start from scratch with all my vidal info. As it stands now I can't log in, or start a new login profile.

If they start from scratch, that should delete what ever problems they are having with my login Info. I've been hooked up with Poser since Poser 4, which I origially bought at a retail store in late 1987 or early in 1988, I'm not sure which date. This is the first time I had a problem buying  something. A company can go out of buisness without a system to buy their products.

Did you create a new login at Content Paradise and link it to your old log in when they changed over their store software a few months back? You may be trying to log into the new site with your old log in information and that won't work.

"Where is this second license? When I used my Poser Pro serial number to purchase Poser 8 from CP all I recieved was a new serial number for Poser 8. Nothing about a serial number for Poser Pro 2010 Beta anywhere in the confirmation email can be found."

There isn't a serial number for Poser Pro 2010 beta, yet. The beta hasn't been finished. As I understand what I have read, when you are invited to join the beta team, you will need valid serial numbers for Poser Pro (the first) and Poser 8 [these are the two serial numbers mentioned]. The beta team is to be invited in October if all goes well with developement. You will also need those serial numbers to get the special discount of about $130 when Poser Pro 2010 is released (not a serial number for Poser Pro 2010 beta). This is as clear as a mud puddle can get, as the folks from down home would say.

LMK

Quote - "Where is this second license? When I used my Poser Pro serial number to purchase Poser 8 from CP all I recieved was a new serial number for Poser 8. Nothing about a serial number for Poser Pro 2010 Beta anywhere in the confirmation email can be found."

There isn't a serial number for Poser Pro 2010 beta, yet. The beta hasn't been finished. As I understand what I have read, when you are invited to join the beta team, you will need valid serial numbers for Poser Pro (the first) and Poser 8 [these are the two serial numbers mentioned]. The beta team is to be invited in October if all goes well with developement. You will also need those serial numbers to get the special discount of about $130 when Poser Pro 2010 is released (not a serial number for Poser Pro 2010 beta). This is as clear as a mud puddle can get, as the folks from down home would say.

LMK

LOL! Well the confusing part was this bit:

Quote - If you are a Poser Pro customer, and you buy a copy of Poser 8, you’ll own two licenses and two unique serial numbers; one for Poser Pro and one for Poser 8.

I expected to see two license numbers in my confirmation email but I guess the second license is still my original Poser Pro license. Clear as mud.... Hehehe...Yeah and some of us need windshield wipers for our glasses!

OK I sent in my Problem To SM. They responded quickly, and basicly have me set up and I can now log in and I orderd Poser 8. When there is money involved, things happens. I'm glad for their quick responce as I know they have to be swamped at this time. So Thanks SM

At Easterau,
I haven't done any python scripting testing, but was more concerned about the content and if it transferred over to P8 without problems...and so far so good.
I don't use a whole lot of Python but the some that I do use I manually stuck into a P8 folder and used from there. Didn't even try to use Python from PoserPro or P7 so I can't answer to that.

Hope this helps.

I have used several Python scripts I moved from PoserPro to P8. All have worked except one I have for reordering-adding to in mass, etc to modify my runtime-libraries (which I expected since the xml file is way different).

If I wait for pro2010 release, could I still get p8 free then?
In other words, how long is the p8 price discount from pro2010 good for?
I'm quite happy with pro(2008) and not in a hurry to use p8... so was wondering how big my window of opportunity is. ;)

Does all this apply to users with the base version? And will there be a 2010 base version?

I've asked Smith Micro about the Base version and they've replied following:

Quote - We are still evaluating the merits of offering a base versus a full version of Poser Pro 2010.

Seeing that Poser 8 and Poser Pro base are very close and I don't use network rendering, I decided to leave Poser Pro Base for what it is and return to the regular version, suits my needs fine. As far as I know the special offers will apply to the base version also, but I do have my doubts there will be a base version.

Quote - If I wait for pro2010 release, could I still get p8 free then?
In other words, how long is the p8 price discount from pro2010 good for?
I'm quite happy with pro(2008) and not in a hurry to use p8... so was wondering how big my window of opportunity is. ;)

As far as I know the discount is until the end of August.

Quote -
Seeing that Poser 8 and Poser Pro base are very close and I don't use network rendering, I decided to leave Poser Pro Base for what it is and return to the regular version, suits my needs fine. As far as I know the special offers will apply to the base version also, but I do have my doubts there will be a base version.

I tend to agree, I guess it depends on how good a deal is available.  I also don't use network rendering or have any need to transfer to higher end programs. Well, maybe Carrara, but poser stuff works fine in Carrara as long as P6 is installed. It might end up being a pretty expensive GC and Render in Background. :)

Tell you what, though, P8 does seem to be a crashing son of a gun, usually at the most inopportune times.

Quote - > Quote -

Seeing that Poser 8 and Poser Pro base are very close and I don't use network rendering, I decided to leave Poser Pro Base for what it is and return to the regular version, suits my needs fine. As far as I know the special offers will apply to the base version also, but I do have my doubts there will be a base version.

I tend to agree, I guess it depends on how good a deal is available.  I also don't use network rendering or have any need to transfer to higher end programs. Well, maybe Carrara, but poser stuff works fine in Carrara as long as P6 is installed. It might end up being a pretty expensive GC and Render in Background. :)

Tell you what, though, P8 does seem to be a crashing son of a gun, usually at the most inopportune times.

It sure crashes a lot...... even if you don't touch it and type a message in a forum. I just had that a minute ago. Worked in P8 on a scene. Stopped working, but left P8 open. Switched to email, then to the forum. While typing a message, P8 suddenly crashes. It sure crashes a lot and often it's very unclear why it does so. I'm having a hard time determining patterns in the crashes. At times it works fine for hours, other times it crashes within minutes. Do the same thing again and no crash at all, but then it crashes at a point when doing things that went fine before. This application just isn't ready for release at all and we're all participating in an extended beta testing program...... except we paid for it.

Slow down! SM cannot test every video card and every driver. Random crashes are almost certainly the video card.

Is your driver up to date?

If you disable OpenGL preview, and use SreeD, does it still crash? I've been using P8 a while - it hasn't crashed on me in 6 weeks, and that was a beta copy.

Attached Link: Vinyamar - trollfight scene, frame 113 - P8 IDL demo

     I'm still installing and moving existing content libraries to shared docs / public folders, but I have been experimenting a bit using my weakest machine (32bit WinXp, 4Gb RAM shared among quad cores).  I found that I was able to render a complex scene, one which had immediately crashed P7.  P8 renders it, fast.      If I engage P8's IDL it takes a long time to render, but I also don't have to make a dozen test renders to get the lighting right.  In P7, I had to pump in light with a fire hose to light the scene (16 spots, at %300 intensity);  in P8, I could eliminate most of them, and the remaining spots are now set to %100-%33 intensity.      In P7, I spent a lot of time correcting flashed-out areas here and near-black areas there.  P8 with IDL evens out the extremes;  it reminds me of the effect of an HDR photo.

     I had to work to crash P8;  the linked image (see above) is P8 IDl, with ray-traced shadows and 3D motion blur;  the same computer crashed in P7 trying to render this without IDL or 3D motion blur.  The fortress/palace set is big, and there are three choreographed dolls with lots of animation keyframes.  It's a pig of a pz3.

As it is now, I consider the IDL to be a final render option for making portraits/wallpapers, but too slow to be feasible for rendering animations.  If they improve this in SR1, it will be very much worthwhile.

GeForce FX 5500, no new drivers have been available for years.
It crashes going to the material room, and it doesn't matter if it's OpenGL or not.
And it's not random, it does it when switching to the material room. It might be intermittant, but not random, for me anyway.
I'm not saying it's a show stopper, but it sure is aggravating. I'm sure they'll get it fixed

Crash on entering the material room was a common bug report during beta. Two weeks ago, every single person in beta test who ever saw that happen said it never happens anymore.

Unfortunately, there must be still more situations and configurations that were not discovered. Such is the nature of Windows and the 8 million possible combinations of hardware and software we all have.

The material room is a fair bit of complex GUI work, and though it sure looks about the same, it was completely rewritten from scratch. Just getting it back to the exact same as it was is a lot of work. The groundwork is now set for material room innovation. The old implementation was a dead end. Small consolation, I know, but that was the point, in case you're wondering.

If you have not done so, please report this crashing to SM customer support. More data means more likely to be fixed, and sooner, perhaps even a patch release before SR1.

Ok question I saved a file( pz3) and just tried to open it but surprise what I get in my Document window looks like a screen capture of my monitor background
The hierarchy tab shows all of the figures and lights and if I select one it makes no change in the parameter tab or the document
Any idea?
Previously saved pz3 s fro PProopen fine

Video driver.

 Also, don't forget about double checking your registry integrity, if you are using Windows. There is still detrius left over after -any- uninstall, and dangling COM stubs or Active X controls can do some extremely disturbing things (and no, you don't trust Windows to keep it clean; it can't). Everyone should have a registry cleaner, or something akin to Norton Utilities to keep things working properly (and anyone who has ever deleted a folder instead of uninstalling whatever app was in their has set themselves up for chaos).....

Quote - Video driver.

Checked and am running latest video driver from nvidia
Tried another scene Same results everything else seems to be working fine all files open, pose ,conform , scenes render, until the file is saved and then everything still works except for that pz3
Am running XPPro64 with 8gig of ram twin GeForce7600GS video cards with 512 ram each with a 5200+ amd processor

Quote -  Also, don't forget about double checking your registry integrity, if you are using Windows. There is still detrius left over after -any- uninstall, and dangling COM stubs or Active X controls can do some extremely disturbing things (and no, you don't trust Windows to keep it clean; it can't). Everyone should have a registry cleaner, or something akin to Norton Utilities to keep things working properly (and anyone who has ever deleted a folder instead of uninstalling whatever app was in their has set themselves up for chaos).....

Agreed and I have several including Norton

Just found out that if I change rooms the file works which makes me somewhat happier but still I shouldn't have to do this

RF:

Bug report, please, if you haven't already! Lucky you found a workaround.

http://support.smithmicro.com

Make a new incident report.

Have since found thread here with other people having the problem and a bug report has already
been started but I shall post as well

Yeah, don't hesitate to report a bug they already know about. The reason is if only one person explains what hardware, drivers, and other software they have, then SM has only one data point and cannot detect patterns. With many people reporting the same problem, a common theme sometimes emerges. For example, if 20 people all report a refresh problem, but they all have different video cards, they go one way. If they all have the same video card, they go the other.

Diagnosing and fixing these problems goes fastest when everybody gives SM information.

Yep  more is better  on bug reports

Quote - GeForce FX 5500, no new drivers have been available for years.
It crashes going to the material room, and it doesn't matter if it's OpenGL or not.
And it's not random, it does it when switching to the material room. It might be intermittant, but not random, for me anyway.
I'm not saying it's a show stopper, but it sure is aggravating. I'm sure they'll get it fixed

The latest driver for your (and mine) video card is dated July 9, 2008. 

Bit off topic - but is anyone getting better download speeds than 19.4 KB/s?

Took me over 4 hours yesterday to download the program file, about 10 attempts to get the patch - I'm afraid to go for the 1 gig of new content.....

For something that has such a high footprint, I prefer getting hard media; you don't have to deal with data damage due to interruptions and slow downs (of course there are other issues that can be just as bad, but....)

Just got P8 today, and hopefully will have it installed in a couple of weeks (I still have to get the rack for the office. No place to put the CG box and its 4u chassis except in a rack). I should have at least some of the rendergarden back up by september, so I can't wait to see how the network rendering goes....

Quote - Bit off topic - but is anyone getting better download speeds than 19.4 KB/s?

Took me over 4 hours yesterday to download the program file, about 10 attempts to get the patch - I'm afraid to go for the 1 gig of new content.....

Lucky you.... it took me 6 hours to download the application and even more to download the rest.

My first attempt tp download Poser 8 crashed after 5hrs and I couldn't get more than 19kb/s
Second attempt crashed after two hours, no more than 25 to 30kb/s either.

Tried both Explorer 8 and FF 3.5, no difference.

Then I tried Firefox' "DownThemAll" plugin and got constant 130kb/s with no crashes.
Same results for the new and the legacy content.

So, my advice is: Use Firefox and "DownThemAll" !

Yes, entering the material room was a surefire way to mess up my OpenGL preview.

But I was lucky to find some new video card drivers for my Acer Laptop (Even though everybody said there are no new ones available), all my OpenGL woes are fixed now. :-)

Still once you have entered  the material room, Poser takes it's sweet time changing back to the pose room if you want to leave it again.